Education in not only America but in Oklahoma has declined over the past few years, as shown by the multitude of budget cuts being made to public education. Due to these cuts, more teachers are being fired and more programs are being cut in order to make ends meet, which overall decreases the effectiveness of learning for students. Teachers are having to go above and beyond their normal abilities in order to provide for their students without being asked if they can in the first place. This includes providing extra learning materials for students without the extra funds to do so, so that teachers are paying more out of their pockets, and giving more time to students by helping them individually in order to ensure that they are successful, which many of my teachers have done for my classes.

Since more teachers are being let go, the existing or remaining ones are receiving the students that the other teacher would have had, making it harder for the remaining teachers to help students individually because of larger classroom sizes. Personally, at my former high school, Edmond Santa Fe, classroom sizes could be as small as 15 or as large as 32. Although a large classroom size in one class may have not been as difficult for me in, for example, Advanced Placement Government, it was harder however with math. Since different students have different weaknesses, if they are not getting the help that they need in their weaker subjects, then they will not be able to continue with their education at the same rate as everyone else. One thing that helped me was by taking a review class that reviewed the basic, most important concepts of Algebra I before I went on to take Algebra II or any other higher math. Since this class was smaller with only about 15 people and we all had a struggle with Algebra concepts, it was easy for the teacher to identify our strengths and weaknesses in order to help us more effectively.

Education is treated as an “experiment”, and one example of this is when, in my junior year of high school, Oklahoma believed that they would be switching over to the “common core” standard of learning—only to end up not switching—which includes more writing-based concepts and critical thinking, which is very different from the “No Child Left Behind” concept that Oklahoma has gone by for at least as far as my educational career.

The No Child Left Behind concept works like this: states set their own standards for educational goals, with a further emphasis on annual testing with significant changes in funding. The program itself does not require any programs for talented, gifted and high-performing students. This means that programs for these students, as well as programs in fine arts are being cut, therefore making students such as myself suffer.

I am a Music Education major. Even though the outlook right now is discouraging since I am going into not only education that is being cut, but fine arts that are being cut, I don’t have much of a choice as far as my passion. Programs such as music are important and should be made available to every student because many studies have shown that fine arts programs are indeed valuable to education. Some of the most high-performing kids in my high school were band kids, orchestra kids, choir kids and drama kids. If these programs are taken away from us, then we lose a culture that already does not get enough credit. Music majors are some of the most hard-working people I have ever met. They take a ridiculous amount of hours, as well as insanely hard classes, and yet they go above and beyond to do so much more for their fellow students and professors. Why do we practice hours and hours a day on our instruments, learn new instruments and live for 10-hour school/work days? Because we love what we do. You would have to be crazy to do this otherwise.

Some of the best teachers I have had have been music teachers. Teachers such as my high school band directors, more specifically the head band director Mr. L, and my US History teacher in high school. I have been fortunate to have many really dedicated and great professors, but these two stood out in different ways.

My high school band director currently stands as my favorite teacher that I have ever had, because he not only taught me so much about playing my instrument, but because he also ignited a passion for music in my life by showing me how much I love playing and teaching others how to play as well. He also taught me many life skills that I have and will continue to use in my life, from punctuality, discipline, respect and leadership skills.

Every Monday, all of the section leaders for our high school marching band would meet in the band room at 3:30 p.m. and talk about not only our goals for the band for the week, but we would also plan volunteer events for the band to be involved in. He would also show us videos of TED talks, and also introduced us to an author that even came to our band my freshman year of high school named Scott Lang. He provided so much for our band in terms of not only as a teacher but as a mentor.

My junior year US History teacher was another teacher that really impacted me, if even only for a year. Although I excelled somewhat naturally at history, my teacher, even though he was busy with football season as well as being a teacher, made a point to talk to us about current events, life skills and included other relevant ideas and thoughts into our lessons every day. It was only his first year at the school, but due to budget cuts he was let go along with other teachers that either left or retired.

Other times, I have had poor professors that tended to not care about their jobs as much as others, in the sense that they could have done way more with their time yet did not utilize their skill set. For example, my freshman year of high school I was interested in photography because I loved photo editing, so I enrolled in a photography class. However, due to budget cuts, the only photography teacher that was available to teach that course could not add any more classes to his day due to an excess in students enrolled in Intro to Photography, so another teacher that taught art stepped forward. The result was a catastrophe.

The class was set for the last school hour of the day, and became a half “Intro to Photography” class and a half “Intro to Art” class, in which the teacher taught two different classes in the same hour. He would give “instruction” to one half, then “instruction” to the other; his “instruction,” however, consisted of assigning the Art kids assignments and telling the Photography kids every single day just to walk around the school grounds and take photos. He never gave us official assignments even though the actual photography teacher gave his kids assignments, we never had a test, and his only “grades” were that if you showed up to the class that day, you received a 100 percent in the grade book. So, when I was absent for a school activity, I received a zero in the grade book for that day. He would also make fun of the art students’ work, not constructive criticism, with his AP Studio Art students, which seemed like a form of bullying. Even after complaining to administration about the class multiple times, no real action was ever taken and the teacher was never officially reprimanded and, as far as to my knowledge, remains at the school today. It astounds me how teachers who go above and beyond their abilities in the classroom are fired, yet the ones that are lazy and rude, even if they have worked at the school longer, have the sense of job security.

One other issue in schools is the high emphasis schools have on testing. Testing could be used more effectively, but it is currently abused. For one class in high school, students would take a chapter or multi-chapter test to review concepts in that class, a mid-term and a final exam along with any end of instruction tests required by the state of Oklahoma for a student to graduate high school. So if a student has to take classes with that same structure, anywhere from six to seven classes at a time, how does one sleep, eat, socialize or relax? In college, depression and anxiety becomes a big problem when students such as myself are taking 17 or more college hours.

Professors have even said that for every credit hour you take in college you should be studying 3 hours outside of class for that class alone. So if I am taking 17 hours of classes, that would mean I need to study 51 hours a week for my classes, on top of practicing for about three hours a week on every instrument I play, totaling nine hours for French horn, mellophone and piano. Also assuming that I need at least 6 hours of sleep—even though studies show that we need around 7 to 9 hours—that totals to 42 hours a week for sleep. Now, we are up to 102 hours of “busy activity,” and that does not include eating, showering, relaxing, working, extra-curricular activities or socializing in order to promote social growth. It’s clear that anxiety can set in if one does not manage their time properly while in college. I know that I am personally affected by anxiety and stress that can lead to depression. It affects sometimes physical health and, more obviously, emotional health, leaving students such as myself with feelings of no self-worth and anxiety about whether or not we can pass the class to get credit along with stress about future assignments. Every student has their own tolerance level before they max out on stress, and the testing issues with mid-terms and finals play a big role in why many people believe they cannot handle college.

One thing I am proud of about my time spent in college so far, which has only been half a semester, is that I am already helping to make an impact through UCO on education in Oklahoma. A few years ago, Cashion public schools in Cashion, Oklahoma, had its music program stripped due to budget cuts. Now, after a few calls to UCO, on September 18, 2015, the UCO Stampede of Sound marching band went to Cashion high school and marched pre-game and halftime, as well as acted as Cashion’s temporary pep band during the game. Other teachers and student teachers have worked to create after-school music programs to teach students about playing instruments to start up an instrumental music program and vocal program in the near future.

As far as the future is concerned with education, there needs to be a shift from focusing on student statistics to individual help and individual success. Schools focus too much on trying to get the highest student graduation rate or highest testing scores, when they need to be focusing on the individual success of students so that they may be successful after they move on to their next step in their careers. We need to bring our teachers back into schools instead of removing them so that they can decrease the ratio of students to teachers in classrooms, and therefore work more one-on-one with students. Especially with fine arts and gifted programs, there needs to be more of an emphasis on it in order to make it available to every child.

The good news is that the United States Senate and House of Representatives have acknowledged this in some way by creating their own separate versions of an act that is titled the “Every Child Achieves Act.” This act essentially reverses or is the opposite of the “No Child Left Behind Act,” working towards making fine arts, enrichment and classes for academically gifted and instrumentally talented students just as important as “core” classes.

It is unclear how long it will take the two chambers of congress to reconcile their separate bills, and even then for the president to hopefully pass the bill, but it is a huge step toward the reconstruction of education. Aside from that, one of the best things that schools can do is to start providing support in the forms of counseling and tutoring for students so that they may not be as overwhelmed with high school and college life.

If we are indeed the “guinea pigs of education,” then why not listen to the “experiment” for once? If we are to experience what they put us as students through, then listen to us and let us give input into how education can be bettered. After all, we’re educated, right?